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#21
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funny things to do on a bike
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#22
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funny things to do on a bike
Zoot Katz wrote:
I think he used to also quote Murphy: "Do not ascribe to maliciousness what can be ascribed to incompetence, ignorance, and insensibility." I think you're referring to Hanlon, not Murphy: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HanlonsRazor -- terry morse Palo Alto, CA http://bike.terrymorse.com/ |
#23
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funny things to do on a bike
Fri, 07 May 2004 08:00:44 -0700,
, Terry Morse wrote: Zoot Katz wrote: I think he used to also quote Murphy: "Do not ascribe to maliciousness what can be ascribed to incompetence, ignorance, and insensibility." I think you're referring to Hanlon, not Murphy: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HanlonsRazor You're probably right. Thanks for the correction. I pasted it from a document attributing it to Murphy. I'd searched on "ascribe to maliciousness" looking for a reference. http://www.virginia.edu/uvanewsmaker.../oconnell.html Hanlon's uses "malice", a better word. I wasn't comfortable with the repetition of "ascribe" in the quote I'd found, just lazy. I prefer the phrasing of the translated version attributed to Napoleon: "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence." Thanks again. -- zk |
#24
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funny things to do on a bike
On Fri, 07 May 2004 20:30:05 -0700, Zoot Katz
wrote in message : "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence." That is, in my experience, the usual form of words ascribed to Hanlon. And thus we come full circle, sort of :-) Guy -- May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk 88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University |
#25
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funny things to do on a bike
In article ,
Zoot Katz writes: Thu, 6 May 2004 20:01:28 -0700, , (Tom Keats) wrote: .... Bike-haters were just born that way. The stereotypes and prejudices are built into the car-centric culture, language and infrastructure. It's reinforced by restrictive legislation and redneck radio. There are some who really have a hate-on for bikes and the people who ride them. I think it springs more from nature than nurture. These people seem to have a pathological need to hate something/ somebody, and bikes are one target of opportunity. I suppose there are elements of both nature and nurture in their attitudes. Few drivers envy us even when we're scooping them. Instead they resent us and so blame us for their impotence in gridlock. We threaten their paradigm. Most people, when annoyed by someone on a bike for some reason or other, will feel some consternation with that individual; then they'll get over it and move on, and think about what's for dinner or something, instead -- without deciding that all cyclists are a blight on society. And then there's the few for whom the mere presence of a rider on the road, doing nothing wrong, sets them off. We've heard the conjecture that this is the result of accumulated bad experiences & encounters with cyclists. I don't believe it is. I think their anger and hate is simply innate; it's their natures to be like that. That's what I mean when I say bike-haters were just born that way. In which case it's futile to ride extra 'nicely' just to prevent them from going off on a jag and griping about cyclists not contributing road taxes, and demanding that we pay insurance/registration/license fees just like drivers (we here know many cyclists do, in fact, contribute all that.) So, maybe some few times it /is/ malice rather than ignorance, incompetence, or insensibility. I'm almost tempted to email Mordecai Richler and ask him what he thinks about it, but I might just **** him off for pestering him. I don't even know if he rides. cheers, Tom -- -- Powered by FreeBSD Above address is just a spam midden. I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca |
#26
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funny things to do on a bike
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#27
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Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)
"Tom Keats" wrote in message
... In article , Zoot Katz writes: Thu, 6 May 2004 20:01:28 -0700, , (Tom Keats) wrote: Bike-haters were just born that way. The stereotypes and prejudices are built into the car-centric culture, language and infrastructure. It's reinforced by restrictive legislation and redneck radio. There are some who really have a hate-on for bikes and the people who ride them. I think it springs more from nature than nurture. These people seem to have a pathological need to hate something/ somebody, and bikes are one target of opportunity. I suppose there are elements of both nature and nurture in their attitudes. This is how I see it. There are some people who believe that the world is a nasty, competitive place. They live as atomized individuals, and see the world as made up of individuals, all of whom need to step on each other to get ahead. In addition to lacking a sense of connection to others, and seeing the world in these bleak terms, they also feel relatively powerless. Working class people by the very nature of how our society is structured do not have a great deal of control over their work lives, and don't have a great deal of money to change things. So here they are, feeling powerless, fearful, and disconnected. They have no ways to be compassionate towards themselves and this powerless, fearful side of themselves. Instead, they despise this part of themselves, which they understand to be weak. One way people deal with hating a part of themselves is that they push off what they don't like on to other people. In the case of these people who feel fearful and powerless, they instead identify others as weak, and then hate them for having those characteristics. It's much safer to hate others than to hate yourself. Also, it is easy to fall into the belief that if you only get rid of those people who embody that which you can't stand about yourself, then everything will be all right. Cyclists are identified as physically weak compared to cars. We don't go as fast, we don't have a steel cage around us for protection. Thus, as something that is weaker than the motorist, we are despised. But we are only despised to the extent that the motorist hates his own powerlessness in traffic. That "redneck" stations should encourage violence against cyclists is not surprising. Working class white men are in an interesting situation. As whites and men, they have a certain sense of entitlement, but because of their education, background, etc. they will not be among the power elites. There's a certain amount of frustration boiling in them. At the same time, working class white men are among the few in American society (not sure about other countries) where they have had a certain amount of tolerance, if not outright encouragement, in externalizing their dark sides on to others, and then committing acts of violence against those others. In this situation, we get outright encouragement. We've heard the conjecture that this is the result of accumulated bad experiences & encounters with cyclists. I don't believe it is. I agree. I think their anger and hate is simply innate; it's their natures to be like that. It is the nature of our ego minds to try to externalize what we don't like in ourselves on to others, and then try to eliminate that characteristic in them, or in a more extreme form, eliminate those people all together. However, we don't have to collapse into that sort of behavior. If we acknowledge our shadow selves, the parts of us that are violent, angry, fearful (etc.), and are compassionate with ourselves for being that way, we are then facilitating our own healing, rather than sending out destructive feelings and actions into the world. Warm Regards, Claire Petersky Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com Home of the meditative cyclist: http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky |
#28
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Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)
"Claire Petersky" wrote:
working class white men are among the few in American society (not sure about other countries) where they have had a certain amount of tolerance, if not outright encouragement, in externalizing their dark sides on to others, and then committing acts of violence against those others. In this situation, we get outright encouragement. Hmmmm, I must not have been paying attention in school when I got this "lesson". Perhaps they didn't teach me to commit acts of violence because of my American Indian blood (only 1/8th, but I suppose you can't be too careful when you're teaching an entire population to "commit acts of violence"). Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit acts of violence. Mark "probably not the only thing I missed in my education" Hickey Habanero Cycles http://www.habcycles.com Home of the $695 ti frame |
#29
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Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)
Sun, 09 May 2004 15:43:58 -0700,
, Mark Hickey wrote: Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit acts of violence. Off the top of my head: Language, Football, War toys and entertainment, Wild West myths sanitising genocide and occupation. -- zk |
#30
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Why they hate us, was ( funny things to do on a bike)
Zoot Katz wrote:
Mark Hickey wrote: Was it taught in social studies, or maybe in shop? I didn't take shop, so might have missed my opportunity to be encouraged to commit acts of violence. Off the top of my head: Language, Football, War toys and entertainment, Wild West myths sanitising genocide and occupation. I didn't know Canadian education was so multi-dimensional. SMH |
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